Thursday, December 18, 2014

A Very Merry Christmas with Jodie

Well, here at Your Creative Wings the luck gods have not been on our side. As you may know our website has been down for some time now and this has delayed our exciting release of Christmas goodies. We spent many many hours designing and the Creative Team have come up with amazing pieces to inspire you using those pieces.

The site is now fixed but we've decided to change a few things. So unfortunately we will stay closed from now and over Christmas. When we will start over. So onward and upwards we go. We will still bring you regular updates on here and on our Facebook page HERE

Our Creative Team members have been working so hard creating using our new Christmas chippy that I can't not share with you what they've done. Hopefully what you see will inspire you to use some of the snaps you take this festive season in the new year.So once again I'm sorry to tease you with our beautiful range ;) that you've patiently been waiting for. Thanks again for all the well wishes and shows of support, if it wasn't for some of your's and our CT's encouragement I don't know where I'd be right now. Thank you sincerely xxThere's a couple of shops who've taken the time to email orders through and have a small selection of goodies, I'm sure if you wanted to do a phone order with them, they would do their best to help you out.There's Daisy Chain Scrapbooks in Queenslandand Tomorrows Memories in Western Australia

Jodie has been hard at work creating these absolutely beautiful Christmas cards to share with you and we held back with her blog post last month because we were hoping for the website to be up and running so the new chippy she used would be available to you. Unfortunately this isn't to be, but we could hold back no longer.
Thanks Jodie for all you hard work xx

Here's what Jodie has to share last month, wait till you see what she's done for this months post, further down this page.

Hi Your Creative Wings friends, it’s Jodie here.
I just love Christmas, and
one of the things I enjoy in the lead up each year is making hand made
Christmas cards to send to family and friends. There’s just something about a
hand made card that brings home the spirit of the Festive Season.With not long to go until the big day,
now is the perfect time to get creative and make something special for your
loved ones.

All of the cards are made with the {Teresa Collins Tinsel
and Company collection}, which has elements of silver, gold, muted wood grain
and pops of burgundy.

“Merry Christmas”

To me, Christmas is the best excuse to use sparkly, glittery pretty things everywhere, and I've jumped right in with this card.I've separated the outside frame of the badge from the inner and applied PVA glue with a paintbrush before sprinkling with gold glitter.The inside of the badge and the doves have been painted twice with gesso and once dry I've used sandpaper to the edges of each piece to sand away some of the gesso.

To add some glimmer to the berries on the branch, I've
dipped a small paintbrush into some gold Heidi Swapp Color Shine, applied to
the berries and left to dry.

To make the gold foil background for this card I trimmed a piece of white cardstock to size, inked well around the edges with Versamark ink and heat embossed with Queens Gold embossing powder.

“Meet me Under the Mistletoe”
This card has a simple design, but I love how the burgundy scroll pops off the gold foil paper and gives it an elegant feel.

Again to apply the glitter to the chipboard I've painted it with PVA glue and sprinkled the glitter over the top.
The doves have been primed with gesso and then heat embossed with Pipe Dream Ink in Sandstone.I've found when this embossing powder is applied to unprimed chippy it results in a silver effect, but if applied after a coat of gesso the result is a pretty pearlescent white effect.

On this card I've trimmed down one of the 3x4” cards from
a patterned paper to 3x3”, so that it fits under the small wreath from the
Wreath – Leafy Set.This set is one of
those versatile pieces that can be used in so many ways. You can see in previous blog posts, Sue has used it on her layout {“Happiness”}
and Jen on her layout {“Memories” }

I wanted to create an imperfect effect on my Christmas wreath so I base coated in gesso, allowing the gesso to fill in some of the intricate cut pieces between the leaves.Once dry I added a good covering of Twinkling H2Os in Mustard Green.

The holly leaves have been heat embossed in Queens Gold embossing powder, and after a base coat of gesso, I used PVA glue and covered the berries in burgundy glitter.

When arranging the holly on my card I felt there was too much dimension with all the leaves and berries, so I pulled one of the holly leaves off and tucked it under the other three leaves, which also allowed two of the berries to be at a lower height.

This is another simple design but with a rustic, country
feel.The Lights in a Row chippy
reminded me of Christmas lights or tinsel hanging. I've also used a single star
from the Stars in a row set as my Christmas Tree star.

I've separated the inner star from the outer, leaving the outer star as raw chipboard.I've applied Tim Holtz Distress Stain in Tarnished Brass to both the inner star and Lights in a Row, straight over the raw chippy, giving them a muted metallic effect.

Your Creative Wings products used – Lights in a Row
YCW11007, Stars in a Row YCW10003

“Under the Tree”

Even though in Australia our Christmas is in the middle of summer, I love the romanticism of a white Christmas, and the Winter Tree 2 really has that snowy, wintry feel.I've left the tree as raw chippy as it already has the effect I was looking for.

The frame has been primed in gesso, and then I've added two coats of Tim Holtz Distress Stain in Tarnished Brass, allowing to dry well between coats.You can see the different effect that a base coat of gesso on this chippy achieves before applying the Distress Stain, when compared with the Holly Jolly Noel card.

To finish the frame I painted it with matte Mod Podge liberally and sprinkled over gold micro beads.

Jingle All the Way
Christmas is such a magical time for young children. Time spent together as a family, the bright and sparkling decorations, Christmas lights, carols, trimming the tree, the awe and mystery surrounding Santa Clause... My photos for this layout are of my nephew at that special age of four years old, helping decorate the family Christmas tree and being ever so careful to get the baubles to stay on each branch. Too cute!

I’ve used patterned papers from Meg’s Garden “Vintage
Rose Garden” collection for this layout.
It’s not a Christmas collection at all, but the forest greens and dusky
pinks reminded me of a traditional vintage Christmas scene, and they work well
as a background.

I’ve said before how much I love that many of the Your
Creative Wings chippy pieces can be separated into individual sections to allow
for easy treatments, and this 25th Badge is another great example. I’ve separated the outside frame and coated
it with red glitter. The numbers and
letters have been removed and I’ve given the background two coats of Tim Holtz
Distress Stain in Tarnished Brass, and then heat embossed the numbers and
letters in white, which gives a nice contrast.
Once everything is dry put all the pieces back together, and I like to
put a light coat of fast drying glue (like Supertac or PVA) on the back, which
holds everything in place.

The snowflake engraved deers are totally adorable. This little guy I’ve again given two coats of
Distress Stain and then tied a red ribbon around his neck.

The Jingle All the Way title combines script and a serif
font and a sweet little wren on a branch with some Christmas bells and an extra bow for layering. I’ve heat embossed the script word in white,
the serif font and leaves have had a chalk ink in green applied and when dry
some iridescent medium over the top for some shimmer. The bells and wren have had two coats of Distress
Stain.

I’ve tucked one of the corner scrolls under my photo,
again it’s been heat embossed in white.

I’ve also created some Christmas wall art that I can
place in a scrapbook frame to display. I’ve used Kaisercraft’s North Pole
collection which has a modern Christmas colour palette including pastel blue
and green, traditional red and even though I haven’t used them in this project,
chalkboard elements as well.

For my wall art I’ve created a simple grid pattern with six elements to it. After checking placement I’ve measured three dividing lines, stitched them in a long stitch without thread on my sewing machine, and then backstitched each line by hand in a shimmery metallic embroidery thread. As a base for each grid element I’ve cut 6 scalloped squares on my Silhouette Cameo and then added several layers to each element, finishing each with a chippy piece.

These moustache Christmas Trees come in two sizes, this is the smaller of the two. Each set comes with the solid tree, individual moustache branches, a pot and even a star! I’ve used the solid tree and the star with the centre removed. To get a sparkly shimmery tree I’ve given it two coats of gesso, then when dry a moderate layer of Mod Podge and sprinkled with shimmery white glitter. The star has been heat embossed in silver and adhered in place on the tree.

If you love deer at Christmas (who doesn’t?!) Your Creative Wings has a deer for you - there really are so many to choose from! This little guy has awesome antlers don’t you think? I’ve heat embossed him in white, adhered him on top of my layers and then added a sparkly silver bow at his neck.

The Christmas Badges set is another set with pieces that can be separated. It comes with four ornate oblong badges and four scalloped circle badges. On this grid piece I’ve used one of the scalloped borders and some numbers from the numbers set. Each has been treated the same as the Christmas Tree with gesso and white glitter.

This is another of the Christmas badges (which would also be great for Project Life or December Daily projects), simply heat embossed in white.

A few chippy pieces on my wall art have come from one larger Christmas bunting set (this pendant, the carousel deer and the title). As I wanted smaller pieces for this project I simply trimmed the pieces out that I wanted to use. I’ve separated the ornate frame and heat embossed in silver, while the inner has been heat embossed in white.
The little carousel deer has been primed with gesso and painted with pastel green acrylic paint to match the colour palette of the collection.

I’ve reshaped my title so that it has a gentle curve to it and heat embossed in silver. To finish my piece I’ve added a shimmery white scroll under the title.

Each Christmas I can hang my wall art in a scrapbook frame, and then through the year store it in a regular album to keep it from getting misshapen!

From all of us here at Your Creative Wings we would like to wish you a Safe and Happy Christmas and fantastic New Year filled with love, health and happiness. Oh and as much creating time and mojo you wish for xx